Attachment for screen doors



H. N. BURNS ATTACHMENT FOR SCREEN DOORS Dec. 4 1 23. I J 1,476,487

Filed Oct. 18. 1922 2 Sheets-v-Sheet 1 Dec. 4 1923.

H. N. BURNS "ATTACHMENT FOR SCREEN DOORS Filed 00'0- 18, 1922 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 i m h fl lflh 7 of Ghio, have invented Patented Dec. 4, 1923.

siren HENRY N. BURNS, OF MIDDLETOWN, OHIO.

ATTACHMENT FOB SCREEN DOORS.

Application filed October 18, 1922. Serial No. 595,305.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY N. BURNS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Middletown, in the county of Butler and State certain new and useful Improvements in Attachments for Screen Doors, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to attachments for screen doors and has for its object the provision of simple, inexpensive, easily applied and efficient mechanism whereby flies ,and other insects may be driven from the door as the same is opened'and which will be operated by the opening and closing movement of the door. tion is to provide an attachment of the type stated which will be attractive in appear ance and will be available for advertising purposes. Other objects of the invention will appear incidentally 1n the course of the following description.

In the accompanying drawings, which illustrate one embodiment of my lnvention,-

Figure 1 is a perspective View of a screen door in partly opened position and having my attachment mounted thereon;

Fig. 2 is an elevation of the door in closed position; Y

Fig. 3 is an enlarged section on the line 3-8 of Fig. 2, and

Fig. 4 is an enlarged detail section through the end of one of the rotating arms.

The door frame 1 and the screen door 2 may be of any preferred or well-known construction, the door being mounted for swinging movement and supported by spring hinges 3 or other hinge connections as may be preferred. Across the door above the center of the same, I secure a bar 4: which may be of metal and is provided at its center with a longitudinal opening or slot 5 to accommodate a grooved pulley 6, the axle of said pulley being preferably an openended tube 7 journaled in the Sides of the slotted portion of the bar 4: and firmly. secured centrally in the pulley in any convenient manner. Around the grooved pulley 6 is tightly wound an intermediate portion of a cable 8, one end of which, in the illustrated form of the invention, is attached to a contractile spring 9 which is disposed at the lower portion of the door and has its lower end secured thereto. Above the pul- A further object of the inven-.

ley 6, the cable, 8 passes over a guide pulley 10 which is suspended upon the door at the upper outer corner of the same in such man ner that it may freely yield to the varying angular disposition of the cable, the extremity of the cable beingsecured in any desired manner to the door frame, as indicated at 11. Radial arms 12 are fitted to the axle 7 so as to rotate therewith,as indicated at 13. The arms extend through openings 14 providedat the ends of plates or fiat bars 15 whereby said plates or bars will be firmly attached to the arms, and the outer extremities of the arms are doubled upon themselves, as shown at 16, to form hooks or loops having their extremitiesbearing upon the extremities of the respectively adjacent plates whereby to guard against separation of the plates and the arms, and also providing means for the attachment of ribbons 17.

The surfaces of the plates or bars 15 may have advertising matter displayed thereon, as shown in Fig. 2, and the ribbons 17 may also have advertisements displayed upon their surfaces. The ribbons may be simply tied into the hooks or loops 16, as shown in Fig. 4, and their portions at both sides of the loop are left free so that they may move under the influence of breezes or of a draft created by the opening or closing movement of the door.

As shown in Fig. 3, the radial arms 12 are disposed close to the surface of the screen door so that, when they are in motion, any flies or other insects which may have alighted on the door will be driven therefrom. lVhen the door is closed, the entire mechanism will, of course, be at rest, but

when the door is opened, the wound portion of the cable 8 will, of course, be carried from the plane of the door frame and inasmuch as the upper end of the cable is anchored, a pull will be exerted upon the cable against the force of the spring 9 or the other agent attached to the cable. The pulley 6 will, consequently, be rotated and this rotation will be transmitted directly and immediately to the radial arms 12 so i that said arms with-the plates and ribbons carried thereby will be caused to turn about the center of the pulley or drum 6- so that all insects will be driven away. As soon as the opening force is removed from the door, the spring 9 contracts and thereby rotates the pulley 6 in the opposite direction and produced and applied to any screen door through the pull exerted upon the cable 8, and also aids in closing the dooi. When the device is at rest, the advertising matter upon the plates or bars 15 may be easily read and, when it is in motion, the fluttering of the ribbons 17 will not only aid in driving away the flies but will also attract attention so that the value of the device as an advert-isiiig medium will be enhanced. The device is exceedingly simple in the construction and arrangement of its parts and maybe at very low cost. While I have illustrated a coiled spring 9 secured to the lOWGI f QIiCl of the actuating cable, it will be understood that this end of the cable may be left free and a Weight or equivalent device hung thereon so as to maintain it in a taut condition and in tight engagement with the pulley or drum 6. The radial members may consist merely of the flatplates or bars secured at their inner ends te the axle 7 and carrying the ribbons 17 at their outer ends,

the essential feature being the provision of rotating elements which provide advertising space. Various otlier changes in the minor details of construction may be made without involving any departure from the spirit is opened or closed, radial arms rigidly connected with said drum, flat bars extending longitudinally of said arms and provided ad acent their ends with openings through which the arms pass .to secure the bars, and

freely flutterin ribbons carried by the outer ends of said arms. I

2. The combination with a screen door,

of a rotatable drum mounted thereon, means for rotating said drum as the door is opened or closed, radial arms secured to said drum,

and plates provided'at their ends with open ings through which said arms pass whereby to secure the plates upon thearms, the outer ends or the arms having inwardly proj ecting portions bearing upon the outer ends of said plates whereby to hold the en'ds of the plates against the respectively adjacent portions of the arms. 7 V V In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

HENRY N. BURNS. [us] 

